When the sing-along screenings of “Wicked” go down beginning Christmas Day, I’ll be there — but not because I have any intention of personally raising my voice in song. (Or maybe I’ll join in just with Dr. Dillamond, the goat professor, whose glottal peculiarities probably come closest to the sounds I could produce.) I do […]

Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett might seem like portraits in courage, for anyone who has followed their individual and collective musical trail-blazing, but at the moment, they’re studies in Coward-ice. They portray their long-time alter-egos, Henry and Howard Coward, in the new scripted Audible Original series “The True Story of the Coward Brothers,” which […]

Composing legend Hans Zimmer was the top individual winner at the 15th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards ceremony held Wednesday night, with three wins. The film “Emilia Pérez” also picked up three wins, followed by “The Wild Robot” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” with two apiece. The HMMAs gave out honors for songs and scores […]

The 58th annual CMA Awards show is being telecast live by ABC from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. Scroll down to see the 2024 winners as they are named over the course of the three-hour show. Artists claiming trophies so far include Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson, Megan Moroney and Brooks & Dunn. Stapleton won the […]

The Morgan Wallen smash “Last Night” continued its dominance of performing rights organizations’ awards, as the tune was named song of the year at the 72nd annual BMI Country Awards, held Tuesday night at the org’s headquarters in Nashville. BMI’s most played song of the year was co-penned by BMI writers John Byron and Charlie […]

The suspense wasn’t killing anyone: Ashley Gorley was named songwriter of the year as the winners of the ASCAP Country Awards were revealed in Nashville Monday night, claiming the honor for the 11th time. Gorley came up for other kudos, too. One of the hits he co-wrote, Morgan Wallen’s crossover smash “Last Night,” earned ASCAP’s […]

Welcome back, Sting +2 … or, in the parlance of the current tour, “Sting 3.0.” Power trios are a thing, and roughly four decades after he was last officially a regular, ongoing member of one, Sting has come back around to seeing the glory of the maxim that triads are rad. (Sorry, we actually just […]

When Gracie Abrams opens the final dates on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Canada in early December, fans may be putting in even more of an effort than usual to arrive early. By then, Abrams could have something that no opening act for Swift could previously claim over the tour’s nearly two-year run: a No. […]

The city of Ojai has a long-established reputation as one of California’s most quintessentially laid-back small towns. But residents and frequent visitors who have a love for movies may actually have to work up some adrenaline to keep up with the aggressive film programming schedule being announced for the reopening of the Ojai Playhouse, a […]

Elton John harbors a strong resistance to living in the past, so even though the new documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late” is filled with retrospective glories, it made sense that he would want the film to go out on a brand new song. Or, as the case may be, a Brandi new song. Brandi […]

A dozen more performers have been added to the talent lineup for next week’s CMA Awards telecast, with the three-hour show now boasting musical turns by the duo of Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan, Kacey Musgraves, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Eric Church, Brooks & Dunn, Riley Green, Megan Moroney, Bailey Zimmerman and Ella […]

After doing a handful of dates this past year, Linkin Park will resume touring on a grand scale in 2025, with dates that stretch across most of the calendar year and hit major cities in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Most of the shows on the From Zero World Tour are in arenas […]

Pharrell Williams has pushed back on accusations that he was targeting Taylor Swift when he came out against celebrity political endorsements in September, saying that attempts to pit him against the pop superstar were “some right-wing troll shit.” Williams addresses the controversy in a new GQ cover story that names him the magazine’s Designer of […]

In hoping to write entertainingly about Taylor Swift, sometimes it seems like the best option is just to quote her lyrics at length and then hope some of the filler in-between benefits from some reflected wit. But this has never been a problem that’s been faced by Rob Sheffield, who has long been not just […]

Nothing seems able to tip “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” from the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Shaboozey’s smash is now enjoying its 17th week at No. 1, and broke a couple of records by hitting that mark, with still another crucial one in sight of being toppled. One record that was newly set, according […]

Did you know that Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé lost the election for Kamala Harris? Or at least bear a large part of the responsibility for her party’s failure at the polls this year? It’s true, you know! — at least if you listen to some of the punditry coming from conservatives, and even from some […]

Long before Chappell Roan debuted her new country song, “The Giver,” on “SNL” and leaned into the camera to exert lesbian ownership of country-style expression, Fancy Hagood was committed to carving out space for queerness in country music. Earlier this year, he started covering Roan’s song “Casual,” joking that her unabashed lyrics had finally freed him up to […]

With the “Midwest Princess” still being on the rise, and no end to that ascent being anywhere in sight, the story behind Chappell Roan’s star-making debut album got a deeper dive in downtown L.A. Thursday night. For 66 minutes, in front of about 200 fans, celebrity moderator Brandi Carlile put questions to Roan and her […]

The 2024 CMA Awards telecast will be filled with performers who’ve had crossover success on different charts this year, including Post Malone, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims, as well as stalwarts of the genre like Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton and Luke Bryan, all announced Thursday as part of the first round of talent revealed for the […]